What: All Issues :
Fair Taxation :
Corporate Tax Breaks, General :
H. Con. Res. 393. Fiscal 2005 Budget Resolution/Vote on the Republican Study Committee's Version of the Budget Resolution Which Would Provide More Tax Cuts and Domestic Spending Reductions than the Republican Leadership's Version of the Budget Resolution.

Who:
All Members

To find out how your Members of Congress voted on this bill, use the form on the right.

H. Con. Res. 393. Fiscal 2005 Budget Resolution/Vote on the Republican Study Committee's Version of the Budget Resolution Which Would Provide More Tax Cuts and Domestic Spending Reductions than the Republican Leadership's Version of the Budget Resolution.

The purpose of the congressional budget process-and specifically the budget resolution-is to set an overall financial blueprint early in the congressional session to guide future spending decisions in the House and Senate on appropriations bills, tax legislation, and changes to mandatory spending programs such as Social Security and Medicare. While a budget resolution is non-binding and Congress is not required to stay within its limits, the majority party gains procedural protections during future debates on spending legislation if those measures stay within the budget caps set in the budget resolution (budget resolutions, it should be noted, are drafted by the White House but require congressional approval). Often, however, alternative budget resolutions which reflect the priorities of factions within the majority or minority party are drafted and debated on the House floor. The subject of this vote was a budget resolution drafted by the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a coalition of conservative lawmakers in the House whose goals include expanding tax relief, cutting entitlement spending on programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and reducing domestic spending on education, welfare, and other social services. If adopted, the RSC budget resolution would have provided an additional $182.6 billion in tax cuts over five years, reduced the deficit by half in three years, cut non-defense discretionary spending by one percent, and cut non-Social Security mandatory spending by one percent. Progressives strongly rebuked the RSC budget resolution; in their view, its prescription for additional tax cuts and spending reductions were even more extreme than the Republican version of the budget resolution (which they also opposed). Republicans were about equally divided in their support for the RSC budget resolution. Moderate Republicans, like Democrats (including Progressives), viewed the RSC budget resolution as extreme and voted against it. Conservative Republicans voted in support of the RSC budget based on their view that the Republican version of the budget resolution failed to provide enough tax cuts and domestic spending reductions. On a vote of 116-309, the RSC budget resolution was defeated and the spending priorities contained within it were not incorporated into the Republican version of the budget resolution.